Housing and Regeneration Bill

I shall be brief. Clause 50 is another example of belt and braces. In Clause 10, consents are needed for compulsory land purchase and disposal and a consent is needed for disposing of things for less than best consideration. In Clause 22, a consent is needed for the making of financial provision. The HCA is primarily attractive because it has a great deal of money, and that is why people will go to it and want to deal with it. We had a debate on Clause 32 and the HCA’s interest in bodies corporate and a debate on Clauses 35 and 36. I confess to the Committee that I do not understand Clauses 35, 36 and 37, and I cannot see what they are trying to do. When I was striking deals as the chief executive of a public body, we tried to think what was going to happen or what could happen and we put in rise and fall clauses. We had no power to renegotiate contracts except where we could achieve agreement; we could not change them in any other way. In Chapter 5, headed ““Supplementary””, Clauses 48, 49 and 50 provide a belt-and-braces circumstance which will not be good for the index of confidence among those who recognise that they need successful partnerships with the HCA.